This story is from January 20, 2018

Excavations indicate Buddhist monastery at Lakhisarai hills

Excavations indicate Buddhist monastery at Lakhisarai hills
PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar was perhaps right when he said on November 25 last year that the Jainagar Lal Pahari in Lakhisarai district looked like a Buddhist monastery.
The archaeological institutions carrying out the excavations at the site have claimed to have found evidence that the structure was, in fact, a monastery, perhaps dating back to early medieval (600-1550AD) period.
The place is located around 125km east of Patna.
The excavation work is being jointly carried out by Bihar Virasat Vikas Samiti and Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan.
Bihar Virasat Vikas Samiti’s executive director Bijoy Kumar Chaudhary said cells of monks, boundary walls and a terracotta sculpture of Buddha have been found so far. “The excavation started from the eastern side and it has been assessed that the structure was a Buddhist monastery with monks’ cells all around it with a courtyard at the centre. The bricks excavated so far have been found to be of early medieval period,” Chaudhary said.
Archaeologists from Visva-Bharati involved in the excavation works have also claimed the cells were used by monks for meditation purposes and they are interconnected with lime brick floors.
Anil Kumar, the head of the department of archaeology at Visva-Bharati, who is guiding the excavations at Lal Pahari, said the nine cells identified so far are plastered with lime and pedestals at the entrance and passage between them.

“We have found nine monk cells, a watchtower, a sanctum chamber, a terracotta figurine of Buddha and pot-ware among other artefacts so far. The excavations so far suggest it was a Buddhist monastery site dating back to early medieval to Gupta period (4th-5th century AD),” Anil said.
He said the ornamented pillars similar to few found at Nalanda ruins have also been found at Lal Pahari site. Officials said the excavations at Lal Pahari would be carried out for four months in the first phase as per the licence issued by the ASI.
British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham, the first director general of ASI, mentioned about the monastery in one of his archaeological reports. “Cunningham, in one of his reports in the 19th century, has mentioned about an ancient Buddhist monastery in Jamnagar hills in Lakhisarai,” Choudhary said.
Several copper coins of Alauddin Khilji and two coins bearing the name of Maratha ruler Bajirao Shinde were also discovered at Jayanagar in December, 2016, when locals were digging a mound. Later, Anil Kumar, an associate professor of ancient Indian history and archaeology at Viswa-Bharati identified the coins as belonging to Khilji and Bajirao. Sources said numismatic experts from National Archives, New Delhi also confirmed the inscription of the names of Khilji and Bajirao on the coins.
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